Report Nazca Para-Snowboard 2010 Camp

The Nazca Para-Snowboard 2010 Camp took place in Tignes, France from 10-17 of July 2010.. After a week of training on snow with trained coaches, the result was that everyone had fun while improving their overall riding skills.

Standing Para-Snowboard riders, Luca (ITA) and Carlos (SPA), learned the basic skills of snowboarding with help from the BASS assistive equipment

Other riders such as Matt (USA), Fabienne (FRA), Giampaolo (ITA), and Jasper (BEL), mastered the fundamental skills associated with snowboarding.
The more advanced riders such as Giuseppe (ITA), Marc (ITA), Ludo (ITA), Jean-Claude (FRA), and Gabriel (visually impaired rider from Spain) improved their overall level of riding and Marc stoked everyone in the park with a frontflip on a huge kicker.

Patrice (FRA) and Greg (ITA) also had the opportunity to test out new prosthetics, provided by Chabloz Orthopedie, while snowboarding.
All these good results could not be reached without the support of the instructors that support the project: International coaches that attended the camp, Brent (USA) and Flori (BEL), provided their feedback and experiences of working with Para-Snowboard riders from their own country to the Nazca coaches.
The Nazca coaches, Silvia (ITA), Alessandro (ITA), Biba (ITA), Andrea (ITA), Mauro (ITA), Andrea (ITA), Gianfranco (ITA), Paola (ITA), and Lisa (NOR), had the opportunity to build their experience of working and coaching riders with various disabilities (below-knee amputees, above-knee amputees, above-elbow amputees, hemiplegic, cerebral palsy, visually impaired). These experiences have helped them adapt their coaching techniques to work with riders with a disability in the future.
The key learning experience agreed upon by all of the coaches involved was to determine which movements the riders could do and thus, used this as a starting point when working with the riders to improve his/her snowboard skills.

The Nazca camp finished with a variation of a slalom race that incorporated a jump at the very end. Although a Snowboard cross track was not built, the features of the hill that were available, such as a lane for racing with incorporations from the snowboard park, enabled the athletes to compete in a similar format combining both air and speed.

As the World Snowboard Federation (WSF) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) continue to work out an agreement that will have them both working towards one goal of developing the sport of Para-Snowboard, the sport will continue to grow with its planning for the 2010/2011 season and with an end goal of being included in the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games Programme.

For the 2010/2011 season, Meribel (FRA) and Sestriere (ITA) have both showed interest in hosting a WSF Para-Snowboard World Cup Competition in January 2011 over two weekends. By hosting two world cups one after the other will reduce the travelling costs of the riders coming from abroad and thus, encourage participation at both events.

For more information on the developments of Para-Snowboard, check out the WSF’s Website: www.worldsnowboardfederation.org.

For more information on the Nazca Para-Snowboard 2010 Camp, please contact: Greg Leperdi by email: dagrreg@gmail.com or by phone: +39 3477386802